For about a half-decade, Isaac Hayes strayed in the background as one-half of one of the most successful writers of soul music. He and his partner, David Porter, penned such mega-hits as “B-A-B-Y”, “Hold On I’m Comin’”, “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby” and “Soul Man,” mostly for Sam and Dave, as staff writers at Stax Records.

By all accounts, Hays was a soft-spoken man, seemingly shy of ever being in the spotlight, so when his solo career began, few people imagined that he would be the person to change the face and the sound of soul music. His first album, “Presenting Isaac Hayes” fulfilled expectations by failing to sell, and Hayes considered ending his solo career then and there.

Circumstances intervened when Stax lost all rights to their back catalog during the separation from Atlantic Racords. This caused a state of panic at Stax, whereby every artist was recruited to created new material ASAP, even those whose future looked uncertain. To fill out his own project, Hayes changed tactics significantly by recording cover versions of songs and stretching them beyond anyone’s reasonable expectations. The album became a landmark for a brand of soul music, and paved the way for Hayes’ image as ‘Black Moses’.

Featured tracks are;

Walk On By

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One Woman

By the Time I Get to Phoenix

September 1969 - Billboard Charted #8